The Jungle accounts for over 50% of Peru?s area but only about 5% of its population. This huge disparity can be explained by the areas inaccessibility. Most roads to jungle towns and cities are in poor condition, and to reach the Amazon from the highly populated coast requires crossing the Andes. Despite this inaccessibility, many Peruvians feel that the jungle offers a bright future, and the jungle cities are the fastest growing in Peru. The perceived fertility of the Amazon, especially in comparison to the harshness of the altiplano, seems a godsend. However, what is not realised by many people is that the jungle soil is actually of poor quality and has very few nutrients. It is not at all well suited to agriculture, and once trees have been cut down, rain washes away the fertile topsoil and the soil quickly becomes useless and agriculture impossible. This is particularly noticeable around some of the more easily accessibly jungle towns, such as Tarapoto, where the area has been severely deforested but there is little sign of agriculture, with most of the land lying abandoned. In reality, the jungle area already supports more people than it should.
Although there has been some serious deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon, this is generally limited to areas around towns and cities. The inaccessibility of most of the jungle means that most of it is still intact and in many cases virgin. There are still problems with logging, especially for mahogany, but the government has created bodies to try and oversee this, although with limited success. The government has also created several national parks and reserved zones to try and protect wildlife, and the protection of these zones is taken more seriously, even if poachers and loggers still manage to get in to many areas.
The best known of the national parks is the Manu National Park, an extension of almost two million hectares, between Cusco and Madre de Dios. This is also one of the best-preserved areas of rainforest in the world, with very little human settlements in the area, no hunting, and tourism very strictly controlled. This means that it is one of the best places in the Amazon to see virgin rainforest and the wildlife that inhabits it. There are many other parts of the Peruvian jungle where wildlife can be seen. These include the Tambopata-Candamo National Reserve near Puerto Maldonado in the south of Peru and the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve near Iquitos in the north. As each area of the jungle has a different climate, the wildlife that can be seen in each varies.
In addition to the jungle itself, the towns and cities in the Peruvian Amazon are fascinating places. Iquitos, only accessible by river or air, is a sprawling jungle city, and Pucallpa, further south, is among the fastest-growing places in Peru. These cities have a frontier town feel about them and the people are generally very open and friendly.
This section covers the low jungle areas, such as Iquitos and Manu, which are those that are generally best reached by air. Higher jungle areas, such as Tarapoto and Quillabamba, are covered in the respective highland sections
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